


puts a smile on your face

by remembermyfic



Series: 2019 Snail Mail Advent Calendars [14]
Category: Men's Hockey RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - Always a Different Sex, Alternate Universe - Dance, F/M, dance team au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-08
Updated: 2020-06-08
Packaged: 2021-03-04 04:34:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,303
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24607789
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/remembermyfic/pseuds/remembermyfic
Summary: “Jamie heard from Webs, who heard from Josi – because they’re friends now and I blame Steph – who heard from Alex Galchenyuk – Brenda’s Alex – that PK wants to ask you to prom at the pep rally.”Carey freezes. “Is that why he’s so hell bent on this flash mob?”
Relationships: Carey Price/P. K. Subban
Series: 2019 Snail Mail Advent Calendars [14]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1564486
Comments: 2
Kudos: 37





	puts a smile on your face

**Author's Note:**

> If you know the humans, click out of the tab. 
> 
> Mistakes are mine. You'll find them, don't worry.

Carey does yoga every morning, the slow flow everything she needs to get the day going. At least, that’s what she’s told PK and given what he’s seen her do as part of the dance team, he’s not about to argue the usefulness. If anything, it’s provided him with the opportunity to slow down first thing. Sure, he has to come in way earlier that he’d like, but Carey’s steady movement, steady breath, is enough white noise to help him tackle many of the things associated with running his YouTube empire.

If he gets caught up in the bend of her body, well. He’s only human. And he’d 100% stop if she asked.

“What about a flash mob?” he finds himself asking as he updates his tags on his latest vlog, and makes a mental note that his school day vlogs aren’t as popular. It’s disappointing, really. He’d hoped to have one super easy video he could pull out when things got rough. Between classes, homework, family and student council, finding time for filming, editing and uploading has been difficult.

“For pep rally? A logistical nightmare.”

“We can get the gym classes in on it.”

Carey unfolds herself from her latest pretzel – Eagle, he thinks and has a moment of ‘things I never thought I’d learn’ – and into a simple Downward Dog. “Who’s going to choreograph it?”

She’s not looking at him, but that doesn’t stop him from turning his sunniest smile on her. “Steph loves me.”

“Steph’s a sucker for a pretty face. It’s the only reason she agreed to teach Josi to dance. Everyone knows he has two left feet.”

PK gawks for a moment. “Why do I feel like I’ve been left out of the good gossip?”

She pushes down into the familiar plank, then a moment later into a lunge. His eye can’t help but follow the smooth line of her body, the flex of her muscles. It all looks so easy and if PK were a weaker man, he probably would be hiding some embarrassing evidence of how impressive it is to watch her bend.

“She’s not making a secret of it,” she replies, settling into a Warrior pose. “And do not think you’re dodging the question.”

“Steph. Clarissa.”

“Subban, we have nationals in three weeks.”

“And your routine is solid. You’ll win.”

She actually rises where she’d bent over, ready to move into her next pose. He only spends a split second lamenting the loss of the view of her ass. She’s a beautiful woman, it’s not his fault for noticing. “Did you just jinx us?”

“Nah.” He goes back to his laptop, clicks through to comments. “We just spit facts here.”

It says something about him that he feels the way she stiffens. The air changes and it forces his head up.

“That’s a fact to you.”

“Of course,” he scoffs. “Pricey, Carey. Your squad is literally unbeatable. And you work so hard all the time.”

“So do other squads.”

“Not like you.”

She blinks at him for a moment. “Huh.”

She bends into a perfect front fold and PK barely holds in his laughter.

“The cheerleaders are willing to pitch in on the flash mob if you’ll choreograph it.”

Carey slithers through three groups of freshmen, and around two sophomores before she slants PK a look. “I said no.”

“Actually, you didn’t give me an answer either way. And anyway.” He flinches dramatically when she actually stops dead in the hallway, clogging up traffic. She turns to face him, eyes narrowed and searching. It’s full mama bear mode if he’s ever seen it and he’s known Carey for almost four years.

“You asked Clarissa.”

It was dirty pool, and he’d known it the moment he’d turned the charm on the unsuspecting freshman. Carey had made it clear Steph was busy and she had absolutely no interest in doing it. But PK knew how to beat the system. It’s Carey’s squad in name and protective instincts. Clarissa, however, is an eager beaver and hell bent on the squad being hers by the time she’s a senior. She was always going to be the proverbial weakest link.

“Nationals are in-“

“Three weeks, I know.”

“Pep is in four. You’re asking us to choreograph and learn a new routine while prepping for nationals.”

“Clarissa’s all over it! No worries!”

It’s a weird vibe Carey’s putting off, defensive in ways that feel irritated more than genuinely standing up for Clarissa. It’s a wounded feeling and PK does not like it. “She’s fourteen and eager to please.”

He takes her arm, tugs her to the side. It draws eyes, but PK generally does. “You can double check her schedule if you want. I think she has an idea already and it’s going to be the coolest thing.”

“You just want it for YouTube,” she accuses, crossing her arms. PK misses the feeling of her skin against his and shoves his hands in his pockets.

“I’m planning on filming it, yes, but that has nothing to do with it. Clarissa’s convinced she can get the freshman gym classes involved, just like I said. It’ll look so, so cool.”

She watches him with piercing eyes. He feels weirdly caught out about the whole thing. “I’m reserving the right to pull the plug if it’s too much.”

He can’t help but beam. “You won’t regret it.”

He’d promised Carey, but he can’t say he doesn’t regret asking for the routine, pushing the pep rally beyond its usual boundaries. It makes him chuckle to himself, maybe a little hysterically.

“Rumour has it our resident King of Fun is preparing an epic pep rally surprise.”

PK flashes his patented Subban grin, digging it up out of the depths of his exhaustion. “You know it, Chucky!”

“Let a guy in on the secret. Are you about to make all of us guys look like idiots by finally asking Price out?”

PK almost trips over his own feet in shock. “What?”

“Dude, come on. Everyone knows you’re into her.”

PK considers denying it. Hell, he’d barely call them friends, regardless of the fact that she’d spent twenty minutes brainstorming plans for new video ideas while patiently, if a little irritated, explaining a Sun Salutation. He’d argue Carey mostly, and patiently, tolerates him.

“Everyone?” he asks, intrigued despite himself.

“Dude.” Alex tosses an arm around his shoulders. “It’s painfully obvious. I had to tell Kots and Mets you weren’t dating and I swear they were three seconds from making me take a polygraph test.”

“Gally’s making you dramatic.”

“It is 100% not drama. Bren says it’s an unwritten taboo subject on the squad. Or was it a Seguin decree. There are a lot of unwritten rules. It’s hard to keep track.”

PK’s not listening though. He’s not an expert on the squad by any extent of the imagination, but he’d like to think he’s at least smart enough to know that subjects that are not talked about are touchy. Carey is a master at shutting down conversations she doesn’t want to have. After six months of watching her do it with him specifically, and years of watching her do it in general, PK also knows she does it when it hits a soft spot.

“What else does Gally say?” PK finds himself asking, tossing an arm around Alex’s waist companionably.

“That the pickles in the caf taste like ass, and I can’t blame her, they’re really disgusting…”

Carey’s always the first to practice, so she knows something’s up when she walks into the dance studio to find Tyler kicking her legs against the useless bleachers.

“Oh thank god. I was starting to worry that we’d entered the Twilight Zone and you were going to be magically on time.” Tyler jumps elegantly to the floor. “Have you heard the Subban rumours?”

“PK?” Carey asks because while his older sisters have graduated, he still has two younger brothers in the school.

“Is there any other important Subban?”

Carey arches an eyebrow but provides no other response.

Tyler rolls her eyes. “Jamie heard from Webs, who heard from Josi – because they’re friends now and I blame Steph – who heard from Alex Galchenyuk – Brenda’s Alex – that PK wants to ask you to prom at the pep rally.”

Carey freezes. “Is that why he’s so hell bent on this flash mob?”

“Maybe?” is Tyler’s unhelpful response. “The rumour didn’t have trustworthy details.”

“Rumours generally don’t.”

“Fair,” Tyler acquiesces. “It would be a PK thing to do.”

But not a Carey thing and that puts her on edge. She’d always thought PK respectful, if not a little pushy, but never the type to push beyond limits.

“Yeah I know. You hate surprises. Which I don’t get how he doesn’t know after all this time.”

“All this time?” Carey asks slowly.

Tyler blinks. “Can I have your ability to avoid gossip? To most people it’s a given you’ll say yes. To most people it makes sense that a guy would create an elaborate promposal for his girlfriend.”

“Tyler.”

“Hey hey, no reason to bring out the murder voice. The people that matter know better, I’m just the messenger.”

Carey sighed and rubbed at her temple. “How many people?”

“It’s wildfire at this point, so if you want it to change you’re going to have to talk to PK.”

Carey opens her mouth, to say what she doesn’t know, but pulls up short when Clarissa barges into the room.

“I figured it out!  _ Kill this Love _ !”

Tyler flips almost immediately, enthusiasm turned up to eleven. “For pep?”

“Yes!”

She’s anxious as she rolls out her mat the next morning, waiting for PK to show. She’s a mess of emotion, really, and it irritates her to no end. Her kinesiology homework had taken twice as long as usual because her brain decided to ask a lot of questions she’d been carefully avoiding. Namely, what were she and PK?

They’re friends. They have to be at least that much given the ease with which they work together. He’s easy to talk to, incredibly open, and, at least with Carey, never showed even the inkling of deceptiveness. He’s ambitious, which Carey can absolute respect, and passionate, which she admires. Yet at the same time, they’re polar opposites. He’s gregarious, she’s reserved. He has a million friends and she has a handful of close friends. He likes being seen, she likes the background.

But Carey isn’t blind either. He’s attractive and she’s not immune to it. He’s charming and he makes her laugh. He also listens. When she’d told him she was going to be a trainer for a professional sports team, he’d looked back at her and unequivocally told her she could do it. He unconditionally believes in everything she does.

“Morning! Brought your tea and your daily invite from Mama Subban to come try it in person.”

And there’s that, the notion that PK talks about her at home enough that his mother wants to meet her. She has a feeling that carries more weight than he gives off. Her heart warms.

“Are you going to ask me to prom at the pep rally?”

He looks as caught out as she feels when she looks at him. She’d had no intention of asking any such question and she knows it belays her nervousness that it had come out without explicit, conscious permission.

“Um.”

“Ignore me.” She’s flustered now and that’s annoying. She doesn’t get flustered. Especially over this. Over him.

“Carey.”

Holy shit is there so much in his voice. She freezes half way through stabilizing her feet to start her practice.

“Carey, look at me.”

She does and she hates herself. He’s so earnest, looks so serious. Yet he still searches her gaze like he’s unsure.

“It would be on brand for me,” he begins slowly and Carey feels her mask slam into place. So much for the considerate PK Subban. “But that’s not your style.”

“No,” she agrees, short because she’s beyond pissed she’d let herself imagine being romanced by PK Subban. Right up until he grasps her wrist, firm enough that she knows he means business, but gentle enough that she knows he’d let her go at the slightest hint she wanted it.

“That doesn’t mean I don’t want to ask you.”

Carey blinks, but still stands, tense and on edge. “What?”

He shrugs. “I can’t say I’ve wanted to ask since I met you but… You have to know.”

“I could guess,” she says, so, so slowly. “It makes sense when I look at things in a certain light.”

He nods slowly. “A light that you like?”

“A light…” She sighs. “Yes. A light I like.”

“Hey Carey.”

Her heart speeds up and thumps hard, the way it does when they’ve nailed a routine and their score is about to propel them into first place, into a championship. “Hey PK.”

His grin is a quick flash of white. “Will you go to prom with me?”

“If you promise not to ask me in front of the whole school.”

“Never,” he promises and slides his grip to her hand. “But to make sure I’m covering my bases, you’ll go on a date with me too, right?”

It startles a laugh out of her, even as she agrees.

_ Dancing Queen Group Chat _

**Segs:** link – YouTube

Subbanator: Revealing My Amazing GF

**Segs:** well its internet official

**Eichs:** the insta was more cavity inducing

**Lissa:** can attest

**Lissa:** at least it wasn’t a video

**Jonesy:** I expected more of an ode to Carey personally and I’m offended we didn’t get it

**Gally:** everyone was expecting something much bigger not footage of the flash mob that doesn’t stray from Pricey’s face

**Skins:** points for respecting Pricey though

**Skins:** and saving us the bail money

**Price:** I hate you all.


End file.
